The End of the Line

Obscure reference time! (Maybe?) Surely everyone grew up on the same animated cartoon as me? I did a tiny bit of research and the referenced Italian animated cartoon La Linea was aired all over Europe at least. I remember back in the 80s it was pretty much the only animated cartoon airing on Norwegian TV, so for kid me it was definitely a highlight of the day if one of these shorts was shown. Depicted above is my unofficial fan version of a series finale.

I think he was present in our country too, but yeah, I also seen it mostly in commercials. I think the originals may have been before my generation.
He was called “Cool Elf” over here – in literal translation (his name was an alliteration in the original)

Now here is a cool coincidence. Here in Canada, these short clips used to play as fillers when some late-night french shows wouldn’t have enough footage to fill their time slot. My GF in the 80’s spoke both french and english, so she used to watch some french shows where I’d see this little guy. Never knew anything more, but a year or so ago, I ran into some friends from back then, we got to chatting, and the topic of this crazy cartoon came up. None of us could remember anything more about it, certainly not the title. Several wasted hours of fruitless searching later, we all went our separate ways, and just accepted that we may never remember what “Mr. Zumbadeflume” was all about. Cue Saturday the 18th of January, while reading another webcomic I tripped over a link to the ‘vibro-clubber’ episode of your comic. Curious and amused, I investigated further. Today, January the 21st, I’ve made it this far on my semi-binge of reading your strip a half-hour or sometimes an hour at a time at random moments during the days, and now I find out that that crazy little cartoon I couldn’t remember the name of, still has fans, of which you are one. So, thanx for drawing this, from me and all the friends I plan to contact to inform them that I’ve been shown what it was, all those years ago. I’ll bet many of them will now become fans of yours, as I have.